Orange background with illustration of darker orange settee, with a cushion, book and mortarboard and text that reads Settee Seminars.

Episode One

Katy Thorpe & Jody Vallance – Peatland Restoration Project on Ilkley Moor

Katy Thorpe is a senior conservation works officer at Moors for the Future Partnership, who develop and deliver projects to improve peat bogs in the Peak District and South Pennines. From installing big leaky dams to planting a tiny but transformative moss called sphagnum, Moors for the Future Partnership has completed an ambitious restoration project on Ilkley Moor. Join Katy, project leader, and Jody Vallance, as they discuss why the moor needed restoration, and explains the work that has been done.

Moors for the Future Partnership delivers upland conservation projects across the Peak District and South Pennine moors, with much of its work focussing on blanket bog, a precious but historically undervalued and often damaged habitat. Benefits of restoration include slowing the flow of water from the uplands, reducing the risk of flooding, better water quality, carbon storage and a better habitat for special wildlife including breeding waders like curlew and golden plover. This work is backed up by robust research and monitoring.

Further reading:

Moors for the Future Partnership: https://www.moorsforthefuture.org.uk/
Social media channels: Twitter @moorsforfuture, Facebook and Instagram @moorsforthefuture


Episode Two 

Viktoria Spaiser & Nicole Nisbett – Stabilising Earth’s Climate: Key Social Dynamics

Consider all the available technologies, all the actions that individuals, businesses or governments could take to stabilise the Earth’s climate, to make the world greener, cleaner and safer for our children. What stops us?

In this podcast, Viktoria Spaiser, Associate Professor in Sustainability Research and Computational Social Science, and Nicole Nisbett, Research Fellow in Climate Politics, both at the University of Leeds, discuss the importance of social dynamics in finding solutions to the climate crisis, in getting out of the business-as-usual inertia.

Together, they emphasise the importance of public support for rapid and deep decarbonisation and how such public support could be reached using insights from social science research. They end their conversation with some encouraging words in how each single one of us can participate in positive climate action.

Further reading: 

V. Nakate, A Bigger Picture: My Fight to Bring a New African Voice to the Climate Crisis (Pan MacMillan, 2021).
I.M. Otto et al, ‘Social Tipping Dynamics for Stabilising Earth’s Climate by 2015’, PNAS, 117:5, 2354-2365.
V. Spaiser, N. Nisbett, C. Stefan, ‘How Dare You? The Normative Challenge Posed by Fridays for Future,’ PLoS Climate, preprint on SSRN.


Episode Three 

iCasp – Helping the Local Environment

iCasp, also known as the Yorkshire Integrated Catchment Solutions Programme, is an ambitious 6-year programme funded by the Natural Environment Research Council. They are currently working on over 40 projects to: reduce flood and drought risk, improve the resilience of cities to climate change, preserve valuable areas of peat in the moors, develop sustainable agriculture, and devise business cases for greening city developments and making more space for water.

In this podcast, join Catherine Seal, Dr Tom Willis and Dr Jenny Armstrong as they discuss some of the local projects based in the local area.

Find out more about iCasp on LinkedIn and Twitter: @Yorkshireicasp

Further reading: 

Backstone Beck
Modelling natural flood management in Calderdale
Video on natural flood management in Calderdale
Improving flood risk communications through engagement tools
West Yorkshire Flood Innovation Programme
iCasp Director Joe Holden on the Flood Innovation Programme
Video about iCasp
Approaches to partnership working


Episode Four 

Andrew Sudmant – The Urban Paradox: How Cities are both the cause of, and solution to, the Sustainability Challenges of the 21st Century

We live on an even more urban planet, what does this mean for climate change and a sustainable future? Drawing on recent research, Andrew Sudmant explores how cities can solve the sustainability challenges of the 21st century. Drawing on examples from leading cities in the UK and internationally, this podcast offers an opportunity to think about what we’re doing right in cities, what we’re doing wrong, and what needs to happen next to achieve a net-zero future.

Further reading: 

A. Gouldson, A. Sudmant, A Duncan, R. F. Williamson, A Net-Zero Carbon Roadmap for Leeds, 2020.
A. Gouldson, R. Harcourt, K. Lock, A. Duncan, A. Sudmant, Yorkshire and Humber Climate Action Plan, 2021.
D. Dowling, F. Melly, D. Boyle, D. Olgun, A. Boyle, A. Gouldson, J. Fulker, Accelerating Net Zero Delivery Unlocking the Benefits of Climate Action in UK City-Regions, 2022.
E. Kalisa, A. Sudmant, R. Ruberambuga, J. Bower, From car-free days to pollution-free cities: Reflections on clean urban transport in Rwanda, 2021.
A. Sudmant, V. Viguié, Q. Lepetit, L. Oates, A. Datev, A. Gouldson, D. Watling, ‘Fair weather forecasting? The shortcomings of big data for sustainable development, a case stuudy from Hubballi-Dharwad, India.Sustainable Development, 29L6, 1237-1248.


Episode Five 

Kylie Harris presented in partnership with Climate Action Ilkley – Treating the Climate Emergency as a Spiritual Emergency

Join researcher Kylie Harris as she discusses her work on a rewilding project in Tasmania, where she joined together with the aboriginal community to harness their ecological and spiritual wisdom to help prevent destructive forest fires such as those seen in Australia in the summer of 2019-2020.

As well as a writer and an activist, she is an academic and will discuss her rewilding project along with the psychological tools we can use to become part of the solution to issues such as climate change and biodiversity loss.

This event was originally presented online by Climate Action Ilkley in October 2021 and has been edited for this podcast.